The Stay-Tucked Boy's Dress Shirt

My little boy wears a collared shirt to church every Sunday. Even though he has a nice pin-striped dress shirt, most Sundays, he wears a polo shirt onesie instead. Why, you ask? One reason: the stay-tucked factor.

Cheri over at I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar has solved this dilemma with The "Always Tuck Me In" Shirt tutorial, which turns a dress shirt and a onesie into a dress shirt that always stays tucked! This is a winning solution for so many reasons:
  • Baby looks snazzy wearing a dress shirt that stays tucked. Nothing less snazzy than an untucked and rumpled dress shirt.
  • Mommy escapes insanity caused by needing to tuck dress shirt back in every time she picks baby up.
  • Mommy saves money by buying great-condition boys' dress shirts and stained-neck onesies at yard sales. Compare the maximum $1 for both of those items to the $20 price tag on one of these or $40 for one of these. Or don't bother comparing because spending $1 will always be better than spending $20 and waaay better than spending $40.
  • Daddy is happy because Mommy is saving money and because Baby looks oh-so-handsome and garners more "handsome like his daddy" compliments.
Time spent: 30 minutes (and that includes snack time :)
Money spent: 25¢ for dress shirt (last summer's yard sale-ing stash); free hand-me-down onesie; all other materials on hand


Following Cheri's instructions, I cut... and cut...

Turned and sewed...

And... done! So easy!

Perfect for little boys who love to play with sticks...

What I did differently...
  • My onesie didn't have side seams like Cheri's, so after I cut the bottom off the onesie, while it was still laying flat, I marked each side with a marker so that I could match my marks with the side seams of the dress shirt.
  • Before sewing, I pinned my marked sides to the side seam. When it comes to evenly distributing stretch, I must have pins to help me.
  • As I stretched the onesie to be the same width as the dress shirt, I noticed that the button-down front (the overlapping button strip thing whose name I do not know) was coming open, so I pinned that part of the shirt closed to prevent any distortion or gap.

If When I do this again....
Absolutely no changes! This is so simple and I will for a certainty be doing this again. Maybe even to The Mr's shirts if I can find a onesie large enough... ;)

UPDATE 9.9.10:  One possible change... apply this treatment to a polo shirt! The lovely Nora commented that she used to do this to her boys' polo shirts... so now I can't wait to get my hands on a polo to try it out! 


This project is also my first Stashbusting September project (since I purchased the shirt last summer... before my almost-one-year-old was even born!). I'm fairly confident that I can go the whole month crafting only the planned-and-never-started projects in my stash... add to that the started-and-forgotten projects and I could probably go until Christmas!

My next stashbuster is a project I started last September: the diaper bag I started sewing the day before my son was born! I gave myself a one-year deadline and it's approaching all too quickly...


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17 comments:

Dusty said...

Oh my heck, SO cute, Lu!!!!! You're so talented. :D

Tanya Murray said...

Doh! Why didn't I think of that SOONER! A big sanity-saver for sure.

Katie P said...

This is so clever!!

Found you on New Friend Friday. Love the header to your blog too, very creative and cute!

Donene said...

Oh, what great idea! This just is so great! I wish I would have known this when my kids were little, I am going to tell my daughters though becuse I have a lot of little grandson's! Thanks! I am visiting from new friedn friday!
http://easypeasygrandma.blogspot.com

Ron Cooper said...

Following you now from New Friend Friday! Please follow me back on my new Facebook fan page or blog:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inspire/338562522284?ref=ts

http://inspiredbyron.blogspot.com/

iammommahearmeroar said...

Thanks for sharing this with me! Your little guy is so cute. Love those bigs eyes! Your blog is really cute. I love your button. Nice work! Thanks again!

Cheri

Nick and Keira said...

Man, I need to learn this. Fast! How freaking crafty are you??? This is amazing. You are the ultimate saver-crafty-wife!

The Kooky Queen--Rachel said...

Holy MOLY!!!!!!!!!!! That is so amazing! And *if* I have a boy, I'm totally going to try that. LOVE it!

Tera said...

I LOVE the idea! I have a button-up white Sunday shirt from Baby Gap that snaps between the legs like that, and it is my favorite. I'm so excited to learn that I can make all my "tuck-in" shirts my favorites. Thanks Lu!

Maureen F. said...

Love that - I wish I would have thought to do that when my boys were little.

I just became a follower - please follow me :)
thanks

Nora said...

I remember doing this to some polos 16yrs ago when I was a first-time mom. Loved them then, love them now! Great job & what an adorable model you have there! {wink}
♥hugs♥

Unknown said...

Such a great idea! I wish I would have seen this when my son was a baby!

Unknown said...

I am highlighting this at somedaycrafts.blogspot.com. Grab my"Featured" button.

elizabeth @ twelvecrafts said...

Uhm . . . I just saw this on Someday Crafts! Don't forget me when you become a crazy famous blogger!

Unknown said...

ya, that's a great way to keep that shirt tucked-in! do you think my 6 year old would go for something like that? :)

Unknown said...

I looked for these in stores everywhere almost three years ago!

what I wouldn't have given to have seen this when my son was a baby and wearing dress shirts all untucked and flapping around... :) Of course, his shirts are untucked and flapping around still, but he's almost three, so can't really do the whole onesie thing anymore. If I ever have another boy, I'm doing this.

Meg said...

I was fighting the never tucked in shirt all day at Church. I posted on facebook that they should make button-up onesies! Then I googled it and found you! So excited to make one of these for my 7-month-old. Thanks, Lu.

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